Adults’ Rights Come Before Children’s Health and Welfare in Public Schools

Parents send their children to school assuming that kids are its number one priority. But as recent events have shown, public schools are Ground Zero for a culture that puts children last and doesn’t hold adults accountable.

In Waiting For Superman, Michelle Rhee stated that it took her a while, but she finally realized that public education is really about the adults, not the kids. No truer words have ever been spoken. In too many cases, a small group of inept and corrupt adults – district administrators, school boards and teachers unions – is in charge of what has become an increasingly incompetent public education system. Recently, several scandalous events point to deep-seated problems.

First and foremost, we have the Mark Berndt case in Los Angeles. This man sexually abused children for years at Miramonte Elementary School in Los Angeles. For many reasons — including careless dismissal of children’s claims, missing teacher files and operating in a culture of non-accountability — Berndt got away with doing unspeakable things to his students for over 20 years. The system is so perverse that the school district couldn’t get rid of Berndt without going through a lengthy appeals process costing over $300,000. So, when his crimes were exposed, Berndt gamed the system by accepting a $40,000 bribe and retired – but only after racking up another year of credit toward his pension.

And what was the Los Angeles Unified School District’s fix? It decided to ban theblindfolding of children and classroom-made butter. Yes, because Berndt would blindfold his kids and do revolting things to them including feeding them semen-topped cookies, LAUSD responds by slapping a small Band-Aid on a malignant tumor.

The Berndt situation really is just the tip of the iceberg, as case after case of abuse has bubbled to the surface in LA. In California, all school districts have a mandate to report any and all cases of abuse to the state Commission on Teacher Credentialing, which then makes the decision whether or not a teacher’s credential should be pulled. But LAUSD, ignoring the law, never bothered to notify the commission about Berndt or any of the many cases of abusive teachers in Los Angeles classrooms.

Then, across the country in New York, we have the unfirable physical education teacher Valerie Yarn. All Ms. Yarn did was sexually harass her bosses, writing her principal sexually laden emails to the point where the principal had to get a court order banning Yarn from contacting her. After violating the court order, Yarn was imprisoned. Upon her release, however, she was allowed to go back to work at a middle school where she regularly had girls illegally strip to the waist so she could “examine” them. For this she got a one-year suspension, though the district continues to pay her health insurance. It’s anybody’s guess whether she will get her teaching job back and resume her hobby of fondling her female students.

Who is at fault here? To be sure, union lawyers make certain that a bad or criminal teacher can’t be fired, but the local school board in this case makes The Three Stooges look like Navy SEALs. In short, the intersection of Inept Avenue and Evil Street can be the scene of many an atrocity.

Back in California, we have the ongoing saga of parents rising up and trying to take control of a miserable school. As I wrote last week,

Tired of low test scores, (at Desert Trails Elementary School in Adelanto, a Mojave Desert town in eastern California) some parents organized and got more than 50 percent of the parents at the school to sign a “Parent Trigger” petition, which would give them the right to choose a different type of school governance.

However, the Wall Street Journal reports that the California Teachers Association, a union that will go to great lengths to maintain the status quo and thus its political power, sent out “representatives” to Adelanto to disseminate “information” to the parents there. (“Union speak” alert: “Representatives” and “information” really mean sending unidentified operatives to petition-signers’ homes and feeding them lies about the petition that they just signed.)

The unionistas’ door-to-door rescission campaign managed to scare enough signers into revoking their signatures, thus nullifying the proposed action. CTA pulled the same stunt in Compton, the first time parents rose up and “pulled the Trigger.” But after a legal challenge, in which the parents were successfully represented pro bono by the firm of Kirkland and Ellis, the Trigger went forward, and produced the opening of a new charter school. Apparently, Kirkland and Ellis are ready for a second go-round and will represent the parents in Adelanto.

According to follow up stories by AP writer Christina Hoag and the Wall Street Journal, it is apparent that the rescissions were falsified and it looks as if the parent takeover will go forward. But no thanks to the California Teachers Association, which was happy to throw the kids under the bus in order to maintain the status quo at a failing school.

Finally, we have the stunning case of 13 year-old Jada Williams in New York. Honoring Black History Month, Jada wrote an essay about Frederick Douglass and his refusal to be passive in the face of cruel and inhuman slave conditions. Jada compared Douglass’ situation to today’s inner cities where she feels that many teachers have given up teaching African-American children. Whether or not one agrees with her premise, it was an eloquent essay from an 8th grader. So what did her teachers do?

One would think that Jada Williams would be every teacher’s dream. Given a book above her comprehension, she takes the initiative to use a dictionary to work her way through it, grasps the most salient point of the narrative, and produces an essay applying its lessons to today.

Jada has instead been hounded by her teachers and administrators out of the Rochester Public School system. Her teacher gave copies of Jada’s essay to the school’s other teachers and the principal. Jada, once a solid A and B student, started receiving failing grades, and her parents were called with reports about Jada’s “anger.” Teachers refused to show Jada’s parents the tests and assignments she had supposedly done so badly on, and branded her a “problem” student. Successfully driven from that school, the family quickly found Jada shut out of any other than the district’s “warehouse” school for what used be known as “incorrigibles.”

Jada’s mother is now homeschooling her and trying to figure out what to do about her daughter’s education in the future. Fortunately, Glenn Beck got hold of the story and now the entire country knows just a little more of what passes for public education in Rochester. The speech that Jada read is available here on YouTube. (H/T Carrie Remis, director of the Parent Power Project in Rochester.)

While the above cases of child abuse are particularly egregious, they are unfortunately not isolated incidents. Due to school boards that have forgotten their mission, bought-and-paid-for legislators, bureaucrats who have become much too comfy in their jobs and teachers unions which never gave a damn about students in the first place, the school children of America are being used as pawns by the entire education establishment. Parents must become aware of this pathetic situation and take action.

Homeschool your kids, if at all possible. If not, visit their school regularly and meet every adult who comes into contact with them. Run for school board. If you can’t manage that, go to as many school board meetings as you can and let these elected officials know that you are watching their every move. Insist on seeing evidence of the effectiveness of your child’s teacher. Find other concerned parents, march on your state’s capitol and demand an end to all laws – seniority and tenure, for example – that favor adults’ needs over children’s. And while you are dealing with legislators, urge them to pass laws that will give parents a choice as to where to send their children to school. Involve yourself with organizations that have parents and children as their number one priority. Two of the more prominent national organizations are StudentsFirst and American Federation for Children. In California, Parent Revolution is an organization that works with parents at underperforming schools.

Parents, no one loves and cares for your children like you do. It is imperative that you realize that leaving your kids with absolute strangers for six to eight hours a day can be very risky business. Blind trust in public schools is a recipe for disaster. Proceed with great caution.

About the author: Larry Sand, a former classroom teacher, is the president of the non-profit California Teachers Empowerment Network – a non-partisan, non-political group dedicated to providing teachers with reliable and balanced information about professional affiliations and positions on educational issues.

Parents send their children to school assuming that kids are its number one priority. But as recent events have shown, public schools are Ground Zero for a culture that puts children last and doesn’t hold adults accountable.

In Waiting For Superman, Michelle Rhee stated that it took her a while, but she finally realized that public education is really about the adults, not the kids. No truer words have ever been spoken. In too many cases, a small group of inept and corrupt adults – district administrators, school boards and teachers unions – is in charge of what has become an increasingly incompetent public education system. Recently, several scandalous events point to deep-seated problems.

First and foremost, we have the Mark Berndt case in Los Angeles. This man sexually abused children for years at Miramonte Elementary School in Los Angeles. For many reasons — including careless dismissal of children’s claims, missing teacher files and operating in a culture of non-accountability — Berndt got away with doing unspeakable things to his students for over 20 years. The system is so perverse that the school district couldn’t get rid of Berndt without going through a lengthy appeals process costing over $300,000. So, when his crimes were exposed, Berndt gamed the system by accepting a $40,000 bribe and retired – but only after racking up another year of credit toward his pension.

And what was the Los Angeles Unified School District’s fix? It decided to ban theblindfolding of children and classroom-made butter. Yes, because Berndt would blindfold his kids and do revolting things to them including feeding them semen-topped cookies, LAUSD responds by slapping a small Band-Aid on a malignant tumor.

The Berndt situation really is just the tip of the iceberg, as case after case of abuse has bubbled to the surface in LA. In California, all school districts have a mandate to report any and all cases of abuse to the state Commission on Teacher Credentialing, which then makes the decision whether or not a teacher’s credential should be pulled. But LAUSD, ignoring the law, never bothered to notify the commission about Berndt or any of the many cases of abusive teachers in Los Angeles classrooms.

Then, across the country in New York, we have the unfirable physical education teacher Valerie Yarn. All Ms. Yarn did was sexually harass her bosses, writing her principal sexually laden emails to the point where the principal had to get a court order banning Yarn from contacting her. After violating the court order, Yarn was imprisoned. Upon her release, however, she was allowed to go back to work at a middle school where she regularly had girls illegally strip to the waist so she could “examine” them. For this she got a one-year suspension, though the district continues to pay her health insurance. It’s anybody’s guess whether she will get her teaching job back and resume her hobby of fondling her female students.

Who is at fault here? To be sure, union lawyers make certain that a bad or criminal teacher can’t be fired, but the local school board in this case makes The Three Stooges look like Navy SEALs. In short, the intersection of Inept Avenue and Evil Street can be the scene of many an atrocity.

Back in California, we have the ongoing saga of parents rising up and trying to take control of a miserable school. As I wrote last week,

Tired of low test scores, (at Desert Trails Elementary School in Adelanto, a Mojave Desert town in eastern California) some parents organized and got more than 50 percent of the parents at the school to sign a “Parent Trigger” petition, which would give them the right to choose a different type of school governance.

However, the Wall Street Journal reports that the California Teachers Association, a union that will go to great lengths to maintain the status quo and thus its political power, sent out “representatives” to Adelanto to disseminate “information” to the parents there. (“Union speak” alert: “Representatives” and “information” really mean sending unidentified operatives to petition-signers’ homes and feeding them lies about the petition that they just signed.)

The unionistas’ door-to-door rescission campaign managed to scare enough signers into revoking their signatures, thus nullifying the proposed action. CTA pulled the same stunt in Compton, the first time parents rose up and “pulled the Trigger.” But after a legal challenge, in which the parents were successfully represented pro bono by the firm of Kirkland and Ellis, the Trigger went forward, and produced the opening of a new charter school. Apparently, Kirkland and Ellis are ready for a second go-round and will represent the parents in Adelanto.

According to follow up stories by AP writer Christina Hoag and the Wall Street Journal, it is apparent that the rescissions were falsified and it looks as if the parent takeover will go forward. But no thanks to the California Teachers Association, which was happy to throw the kids under the bus in order to maintain the status quo at a failing school.

Finally, we have the stunning case of 13 year-old Jada Williams in New York. Honoring Black History Month, Jada wrote an essay about Frederick Douglass and his refusal to be passive in the face of cruel and inhuman slave conditions. Jada compared Douglass’ situation to today’s inner cities where she feels that many teachers have given up teaching African-American children. Whether or not one agrees with her premise, it was an eloquent essay from an 8th grader. So what did her teachers do?

One would think that Jada Williams would be every teacher’s dream. Given a book above her comprehension, she takes the initiative to use a dictionary to work her way through it, grasps the most salient point of the narrative, and produces an essay applying its lessons to today.

Jada has instead been hounded by her teachers and administrators out of the Rochester Public School system. Her teacher gave copies of Jada’s essay to the school’s other teachers and the principal. Jada, once a solid A and B student, started receiving failing grades, and her parents were called with reports about Jada’s “anger.” Teachers refused to show Jada’s parents the tests and assignments she had supposedly done so badly on, and branded her a “problem” student. Successfully driven from that school, the family quickly found Jada shut out of any other than the district’s “warehouse” school for what used be known as “incorrigibles.”

Jada’s mother is now homeschooling her and trying to figure out what to do about her daughter’s education in the future. Fortunately, Glenn Beck got hold of the story and now the entire country knows just a little more of what passes for public education in Rochester. The speech that Jada read is available here on YouTube. (H/T Carrie Remis, director of the Parent Power Project in Rochester.)

While the above cases of child abuse are particularly egregious, they are unfortunately not isolated incidents. Due to school boards that have forgotten their mission, bought-and-paid-for legislators, bureaucrats who have become much too comfy in their jobs and teachers unions which never gave a damn about students in the first place, the school children of America are being used as pawns by the entire education establishment. Parents must become aware of this pathetic situation and take action.

Homeschool your kids, if at all possible. If not, visit their school regularly and meet every adult who comes into contact with them. Run for school board. If you can’t manage that, go to as many school board meetings as you can and let these elected officials know that you are watching their every move. Insist on seeing evidence of the effectiveness of your child’s teacher. Find other concerned parents, march on your state’s capitol and demand an end to all laws – seniority and tenure, for example – that favor adults’ needs over children’s. And while you are dealing with legislators, urge them to pass laws that will give parents a choice as to where to send their children to school. Involve yourself with organizations that have parents and children as their number one priority. Two of the more prominent national organizations are StudentsFirst and American Federation for Children. In California, Parent Revolution is an organization that works with parents at underperforming schools.

Parents, no one loves and cares for your children like you do. It is imperative that you realize that leaving your kids with absolute strangers for six to eight hours a day can be very risky business. Blind trust in public schools is a recipe for disaster. Proceed with great caution.

(Larry Sand, a former classroom teacher, is the president of the non-profit California Teachers Empowerment Network – a non-partisan, non-political group dedicated to providing teachers with reliable and balanced information about professional affiliations and positions on educational issues. Originally posted on UnionWatch.)

Yes, there is abuse in the public schools. Not only of the children but of the teachers also. People are placed in district jobs and administrative positions based not on skill or training or even ability but on gender, race, and political connections to board members, politicians, and other administrators. It the race is right they can foul up a school and become district administrators. If they have been there long enough and are the right gender they get administrative positions they are not qualified for and continue in them until they retire. Administrative positions are handed out close to retirement as rewards for political correctness, proper gender and race. The governor of one state hammers education financially so that the governor can get new taxes in place not to help the state but so that the major party can continue to spend with out regard for consequences or the fiscal health of the state. Yet, the state loses 200+ businesses a day and the teachers union portrays the governor as putting a finger in the dyke to save the state. There is much wrong in public education and it can be directly associated with politicians at both the state and federal level, publishers, unions, and the media.

Get rid of tenure and the unions and your problems are solved. I went to a terrible High School and did not feel great upon graduation, I felt relief that I had escaped. Fortunately I went to a great college and a better law school. The high schools used to be bad in marginal areas now they are bad almost everywhere. We need more charter schools and more home schooling.

what we need is to get the government both fed and state our of our schools and we as parents need to let the teachers know that we are not going to tolerate any more nonesense when it comes to our children and how they are taught. we pay taxes and some of these taxes pays for their jobs.we have to get rid of these unions as they are as corrupt as the governments are. they have too much power and it’s time to remove them. unions only take your money so they can vote for the ones they want in office. a lot of people those from other countries do not know that they can vote for who they want so they say nothing.

As a retired school teacher, I can tell you I sacrificed for my students. I spent money from my own pocket so my students wouldn’t go without needed educational materials. Also, parents shouldn’t be let off the hook. While most parents were wonderful, there were terrible ones who sent their children to school without breakfast (I had food in my room for such occasions) and so filthy they had to be sent to the nurse. One parent fathered children with his own daughters. So there is enough blame to go around. At the schools where I worked, the majority of teachers sacrificed their time and money for their students. Many, like me, were upset that our dues were spent to fund candidates of the opposition party. So please don’t paint everyone with a broad brush! I retired with extreme stress from all the hours I spent after school preparing for my students and at home as well..

As too Terry Doyle,s statement about knowning that his union dues are being spent on liberal candidates, he and all the other teachers that knew, should all be ashamed of themselves. All that money could of went to feed, clean and most of all give a better education to our future.

Get rid of tenure and the unions and your problems are solved. I went to a terrible High School and did not feel great upon graduation, I felt relief that I had escaped. Fortunately I went to a great college and a better law school. The high schools use to be bad in marginal areas now they are bad almost everywhere. We need more charter schools and more home schooling.

Even if public education appears to work for a while, until we eliminate teachers unions and progressive indoctrination, public education will never serve the interests of students. Everything else is a band aid that only kicks the can down the road.

Al Shanker is typical of all union leaders. Notice in California the CTA wants to tax millionaires but have not got the guts to tax their 700,000 – 800,000 dollar salary per year. Like all union leaders Shanker has his eyes on the prize and that is political power and schmoozing with the political elite. He and the rest of the CTA could care less about students, teachers and parents.

This problem is easily solved with government exiting the school boards and parents returning to the boards. Out law teacher’s tenures and unions. More money would go into the classrooms not in the pockets of administration officials who should also be gone. Put the parents back in charge of they’re children’s education.

First of all I know it would be best for parents to send their child too a charter school,or home school them. This way they would not have to mess with all the incompeted teachers, and unions that have no interst in their childern. All the money the unions have put nothing back into the schools, or the childern, they are only intersted in their liberal friends. Teachers also could care less about your child we saw that in Wisconson. I say disband all unions, and public school. That is the only way our childern the future will get the education they need.

When we moved to our current home over 40 years years ago, we did so because of the schools. We have a small city with it’s own school system and school board. Most of the teachers were the good ones who actually spent their own money on things for the class because it took too long to get what they needed with all of the red tape. I was a volunteer aide, so I saw most of what went on. That’s one way to check on your schools. Our schools are still better than LAUSD.

But, the can get abortions at age 13 without their parent’s consent, and they can stop by the school commissary for free condoms. So, ….that’s a start. Who says the schools are not “keeping up with the times”?

Remember the student “vouchers”? They were shot down because union teachers MUST be protected, along with union schools. If you take the price of educating a student, divide it, and give an equal voucher to all parents, and let them take the voucher to the school of their choice, whether it be public, private, religious, or charter, the voucher should assure that students and THEIR PARENTS are going to a school that serves their academic needs. This way…ineffective, substandard schools would be abandoned, making way for quality schools that can actually teach kids. It’s a simple system, and old closed schools could be purchased and reopened with an upgraded staff. But, it’s all about the power. Between the crooked unions and the inbred school district employees, it’s hard to get real change, as these present school systems are all in the pocket of state and local government administrators.

I figure if my child was forced into attending the sub-optimal, politically correct, liberal think tank that is her district school she would be permanently disabled. I work two jobs to afford a Catholic education while a little expensive you only have one try and why on earth would I want my only child to suffer at the hands of these dolts? Not all teachers are lacking but the ones the Union shields are the bums that need to go. Unions are basically for those who don’t want to work, perform nor be accountible for their work ethics. Does the union allow one to have work ethics anymore or is it still kowtowing to stuff more money into the forum of exorbinate pensions and luxury salaries.

The children are being indoctrinated by the indoctrinated,(bodies that have no brain attached). The parents need to step in and demand their kids be taught reading, math, history and the basics of life. They have brains and they should be filled with something besides what this administration is aiming for. Total submission to their control.

I think you should go by a classroom. We spend countless hour tutoring kids whose parents cannot read, who’s parents could care less about education. We take on extra students so that they can get tutoring in math. We call parents when students are absent and hear excuses about baby sitting, relatives coming to visit and other nonsense from parents. Parents are the major cause of student failure because they do not take part in the education. They want to abdicate this to the state and they are getting what they want a nanny state education. Go by a classroom, spend a day helping teachers at an elementary school. Sit in a middle school classroom and watch these pampered pets smart off at teachers, take no notes and fail tests, sell each other dope and talk and talk and talk while the lesson is being given. Sit is a high school and watch the texting going on in a class. Be part of the answer and take your kids cell away. Set study hours for your child, review their HOMEwork with them, be the adult in the family not the best buddy who whines about teachers.

You want to fix schools. 1. Get politicians out of schools at all levels 2. Bust the unions up into District level units and no larger 3. Get parents off of the brewskis and TV and get them involved in their students education 4. Get some guts and discipline your kid at home to do homework 5. Be the adult not the buddy.